Bio2

How NOT to Plan Your Project

Plan Your Project

The traditional message about how to plan your project is flawed.

You’ve probably heard the old adage: to fail to plan is to plan to fail. And, if you only plan you will also fail.

We are told to plan your project by only focusing on what you have to do. Typically we write down all the tasks we need to complete. And ideally, in the order they need to be completed. This is crucial. We need to know what to do to win our projects. And, it’s not enough.

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It’s not enough because the major reason that we fail to finish our projects is not how you plan your project. It’s a lack of motivation. We run out of puff, we get distracted and we lose focus.

Planning is not enough. Instead we also need design. In particular we need to design and embed our motivation into our project plan. To plan your project you need to include your motivation, your passion and your inspiration.

It’s not enough to merely hope that the excitement you being your project with will continue from start to finish. And, likewise, you can’t rely on your willpower and discipline to pick up the slack when the inevitable obstacles appear.

In Episode 93 of the Ideas Architect Podcast we have the third chapter and first of the seven rules from my book Project Passion.